The British itself!

[benedgell]

Amy Hoare guaranteed to be at least tied for the Women's Champion now.

[Martin Benjamin]

Clive Hill is trying to engineer a clever swindle into a drawn rook ending. See the position after 65...Ra4. As far as my ropey recollection goes, Black needs to be able to take on h4 with his king. if he takes with his rook, and we get something like White (to move): Ka1, Rb5, Black: Kf3, Rh4, pa2, ph5, then it's a draw (I think)

[Martin Benjamin]

Clive Hill is trying to engineer a clever swindle into a drawn rook ending. See the position after 65...Ra4. As far as my ropey recollection goes, Black needs to be able to take on h4 with his king. if he takes with his rook, and we get something like White (to move): Ka1, Rb5, Black: Kf3, Rh4, pa2, ph5, then it's a draw (I think)

67 Kxa2. Is this a mistake? A natural looking move, but I think Rb5 has to be played immediately. Difficult to think straight after such a long game, though.

[Martin Benjamin]

and now Black as made life difficult for himself again with 69...h3. (Still winning, I think).

Jonathan Bryant, where are you when we need you?

[Peter Shaw]

According to the tablebase you are right, isn't this a version of the Vancura ending?

[Martin Benjamin]

According to the tablebase you are right, isn't this a version of the Vancura ending?

I would hate to have to try to draw/win this position with either colour after nearly six hours play. I never knew it was called the Vancura.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

OK, going home now and out of contact for about 90 minutes. I'll predict a draw on 2 and a win for Keith (and I won't speculate about tomorrow's draw.....)

Things are looking up for Howell on board 2. He might squeeze a win out of this... (or maybe not). Currently move 51. Might go on for a while.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Actually, a Howell win could potentially alter things, because it means that the spare person in the 7 scoregoup wouldn't necessarily have to play Nick Pert. (But come to think of it, Richard Pert has already played Fernandez and Emms, as well, so there would be hardly anyone he could downfloat to.)

[Martin Benjamin]

Now trying to get my head round the Arkell-Ward rook ending. Another one to tax the brain after a very long session.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Not so sure Arkell is winning, either? Can't tell. One of those pesky rook endings.

[benedgell]

Just looking at the results- at the moment Keith is on 6/8 in terms of rated games (with the 1 default), and is losing rating points. Also he could still be British Champion having come straight from the Senior Team Champs, which is a very impressive effort.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Howell drew with Pert and Arkell about to win (last game to finish). We should find out soon if the speculation about the pairings tomorrow was right or not.

[Jonathan Rogers]

I should think that if Arkell finishes first equal he will be the first joint winner to have suffered a default!

R Pert v Hawkins then, hmm. Could be 1 e4 or 1 d4. He will certainly relish playing a game in which he would expect a draw offer to be accepted should things start to go wrong. Bit tough for Hawkins to have to finish with two Blacks. But the wise money would have to be on him making his fifth draw.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Are the R11 parings out yet? Can anyone remember what was decided about playoffs? I have a vague memory that they were not going to do that this year because of people leaving to go to the Olympiad?

[JustinHorton]

I believe it's a shared-title job, there's no tie-breaks of any kind.

A five-way tie is possible.